On 7 August, the 3rd All Japan Youth (U-18) Futsal Tournament held the final and the third-place match at Xebio Arena Sendai, and Teikyo Nagaoka High School (Kitashinetsu/ Niigata) won the long-cherished title for the first time in 3 years. The team qualified for this tournament for 3 consecutive years since it was first held.

Prior to the final, the third-place match Takamatsu Commercial High School (Shikoku/ Kagawa) vs Sakuyo High School (Chugoku 2/ Okayama) took place. In the 17th minute of the 1st half, Sakuyo High School’s MIZUSHIMA Ryo scored the first goal who received the ball from a kick-in. 2 minutes after the goal, Takamatsu Commercial High School’s AO Daisuke scored the equaliser also after a kick-in.

Sakuyo High School made a chance at the beginning of the 2nd half but couldn’t score. Gradually Takamatsu Commercial High School started to take control and scored the 2nd goal by MIYAMOTO Ren. After 1 minute, they broke through Sakuyo High School’s defense moving the ball around, and NISHIJIMA Yuki took a shot which decided the match. Takamatsu Commercial High School successfully defended Sakuyo Highs School’s counter attacks in the end of the match and won the 3rd place. Takamatsu Commercial High School’s player ANZAI Masaki said: “I want to utilise this experience in the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament. National level competition is fun to play and we definitely want to play in the same level with football.”

The final match Footboze Futsal U-18 (Kanto 1/ Tokyo) vs Teikyo Nagaoka High School, kicked off at 13:30 was very exciting, and heated-up. While Teikyo Nagaoka High School players looked very tired due to their consecutive matches with the 9 field players, Footboze got control from the beginning. In the 3rd minute, they scored the opener by TAKIGUCHI Shintaro, they then scored an additional goal in the 12th minute by TOMIYOSHI Koki. Footboze extended their lead by scoring their third goal by NAGUMO Sota. Teikyo Nagaoka High School scored 2 goals back in the 24th and 27th minutes, but Footboze scored additional goals to maintain their 3 goal advantage each time, and kept taking their lead. 

Teikyo Nagaoka’s time out taken in the 32nd minute changed the air. The team’s Coach FURUSAWA Toru directed SAITO Hyuga to join in the front line. As the Footboze’s Coach reflected that they had never experienced this tactic and they couldn’t respond enough, this approach changed the match. In the 35th minute, Saito scored a goal, and then could equalise by scoring 3 more goals within the next 3 minutes. The match went into the extended time with the score 5-5.

Footboze committed 5 fouls in the 2nd half, and was charged another foul in the 2nd minute of the extended time. That gave away the second penalty kick to Teikyo Nagaoka High School. YASUI Ryoga successfully scored this chance and they finally turned the game around. They got the momentum and scored another goal in the 47th minute by SHIBUYA Hikaru. Footboze started power-plays and scored 1 goal back, but right before the end of the match, Teikyo Nagaoka High School’s ARAI Taiki scored the decisive distance shot to the open goal due to the Footboze’ power-play. The match ended 8-6. Teikyo Nagaoka High School won the title of the tournament for the first time in 3 years. 

Coach and Players' Comments

FURUSAWA Toru, Coach (Teikyo Nagaoka High School)
I am simply happy. Our results for the last 2 years were going up to the Top 8, so I am happy that we could break this wall and became the champion today. Of course we wanted to do our best, but I still had expected this competition to be more difficult comparing to the previous players of the team last year. I appreciate each player to do harder work this year. The players last year had advantages in skill and fitness hence they could play confidently but once they made any easy mistakes they sometimes couldn’t keep their level. This year, they were under the pressure that they always had to observe opponents and spaces chasing the ball at the same time, I think this was the biggest thing.

SAITO Hyuga (Teikyo Nagaoka High School)
I am very happy to be selected as the MVP for the first time. After the quarter final, I had longer time to play in the matches, and I was tired yesterday after playing the 2 matches. However, we all encouraged each other to keep the motivation and that helped ourselves to keep playing well until the end. This final match was the first one that we had to turn around, but all of us including substitute players were not nervous at all; I think we all encouraged each other to be united well and that pushed us to make this happen eventually. Our Coach told us: “If you do what we have done in our training, you can move the ball well” and we played believing in his words. From now on, we will concentrate on the All Japan High School Soccer Tournament and as a player I will take time to choose football or futsal after graduating from high school. 

TOYODA Yukio, Coach (Footboze Futsal U-18)
When we were winning by the 3 goals, we wanted to keep that momentum to score another goal. However, when Teikyo Nagaoka High School moved Saito to pivo, we were utterly attacked by his quality play. One of our players who had not been selected even as a substitute player was crying a lot after the match. He was the only fixo of our team and he was the strong one. I think he was crying because he wanted to be there at that moment. Now I am regretting of my player selection. I didn’t expect Teikyo Nagaoka High School to take that tactic. In that sense, as a coach I am less experienced and Teikyo Nagaoka High School was better. 

CHAWANYA Rentaro (Footboze Futsal U-18)
At the moment when we could make the 3 goals advantage, the whole team including myself felt “we can win,” and we put less energy in defense. The most regrettable thing as a captain was that I couldn’t keep encouraging the team by saying “the match hasn’t ended yet.” Teikyo Nagaoka High School has high skills and once they get the ball, they can make good pass work. When we tried to steal the ball, they can try to break us with one-two passing; hence it was difficult for us to see what to do in defense. We have lost the final this time, but we still have the future. When any of us will be called up as the Japan Futsal National Team’s members or will play in the F League, we want to say: “the defeat in the All Japan Youth Futsal Tournament made me stronger”. For that moment, we review ourselves to know what was missing and will keep working hard for the next stage.

The 3rd All Japan Youth (U-18) Futsal Tournament

Thu. 4 August - Sun. 7 August 2016
XEBIO ARENA SENDAI, Sendai City Gymnasium / Miyagi
More information
JFA-TV (Japanese version only)